The Jewish Museum of São Paulo opens this Thursday (6th) the first edition of FliMUJ, its literary festival. The free event, which runs until Sunday, brings together names such as Sueli Carneiro, Noemi Jaffe, Betty Fuks, Lira Neto and Nilton Bonder to talk about Brazilian contemporaneity. Also present will be the Israeli writer Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (“Awakening the Lions”), who the author of this very Oriental blog recently interviewed for Quatro Cinco Um. The curatorship is by journalists Fernanda Diamant and Bianca Santana.
The museum was founded in 2021 in downtown São Paulo, on the premises of the former Beth-El synagogue – built between 1927 and 1932 in the Byzantine style. In addition to architecture, this new cultural institution in São Paulo stands out for one of its wings, which focuses on the history of Jewish immigration to Brazil. The event is a step towards inserting the museum into the city’s calendar and public debate.
This background translates into the festival’s themes, which sew Jewish identity with the Brazilian social fabric. During the three-day event, Jewish and non-Jewish authors will discuss topics such as literature, indigenous cultures, blackness and democracy. It is symbolic that the event takes place between two key dates in the Jewish calendar: Yom Kippur (the day of forgiveness) and Succot (the feast of huts).
The full schedule is on the museum’s website. Among the highlights of the early days is the “Is there a literary Jewry?” table, in which Betty Fuks, Yudith Rosenbaum and Daniel Douek will talk about the construction of a Jewish identity in the diaspora. The panel “Eretz tropical?”, with Lira Neto, Márcio Souza and Rita Palmeira, on the participation of Sephardic Jews in the construction of the Americas also draws the attention of this blog. Another suggestion is the meeting “Has tchotchke turned tchutchuca?”, on Polish Jewish women forced into prostitution – will speak Amara Moira, Paula Janovitch and Assucena.
FliMUJ (Literary Festival of the Jewish Museum of São Paulo)
October 6th to 9th, 10am to 6pm
Rua Martinho Prado, 128, São Paulo/SP
Free (tickets collected via Sympla)
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